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Supposing we played a little before entering upon our serious
concern and maintained that all things are striving after
Contemplation, looking to Vision as their one end- and this, not
merely beings endowed with reason but even the unreasoning
animals, the Principle that rules in growing things, and the
Earth that produces these- and that all achieve their purpose in
the measure possible to their kind, each attaining Vision and
possessing itself of the End in its own way and degree, some
things in entire reality, others in mimicry and in image- we
would scarcely find anyone to endure so strange a thesis. But in
a discussion entirely among ourselves there is no risk in a light
handling of our own ideas.
Well- in the play of this very moment am I engaged in the act of
Contemplation?
Yes; I and all that enter this play are in Contemplation: our
play aims at Vision; and there is every reason to believe that
child or man, in sport or earnest, is playing or working only
towards Vision, that every act is an effort towards Vision; the
compulsory act, which tends rather to bring the Vision down to
outward things, and the act thought of as voluntary, less
concerned with the outer, originate alike in the effort towards
Vision.
The case of Man will be treated later on; let us speak, first, of
the earth and of the trees and vegetation in general, asking
ourselves what is the nature of Contemplation in them, how we
relate to any Contemplative activity the labour and
productiveness of the earth, how Nature, held to be devoid of
reason and even of conscious representation, can either harbour
Contemplation or produce by means of the Contemplation which it
does not possess.
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